New programs and forward progress

While these cost-saving measures are necessities in today’s tough times, we know we can’t cut our way to success. I’m very encouraged with the amount of forward progress Airgas is making in this challenging marketplace.

Overall, we increased the amount of associate training significantly, including a twenty-fold increase in on-line training. Right now, our entire organization is participating in comprehensive customer service training programs to ensure that every stage of the Airgas customer experience – from price quoting to gas delivery – is second to none.

Customer service is the driving force behind a number of other business-building advances. Our OUTLOOK^® service allows us to manage the supply chain of gases for our customers so they can concentrate on their primary businesses. To speed delivery of gases to new and existing customers, we recently built, acquired, or renovated a number of fill plants. And, for the longer term, we're on the front end of a multi-year phased transition to a common information platform that will make it easier for customers to do business with Airgas.

In fiscal 2009, acquisitions and internal process improvements continued to strengthen our strategic product categories.

In the healthcare sector, we now offer certification of medical piping systems and have introduced a cylinder rehabilitation and testing service for homecare medical distributors. Our acquisition of Oilind Safety enhanced our construction offering with the addition of air masks and gas detection equipment, and the purchase of A&N Plant expanded our range of rental equipment and gave us a presence in the European market.

For specialty gas customers, we developed a returnable lecture bottle so they don’t have to deal with hazardous waste disposal issues. We also acquired Refron which gave us the critical mass to form Airgas Refrigerants, a new and promising business focused on the reclamation and sale of refrigerant products used by our diversified customer base.

In the past six months, we have opened two new air separation units. Airgas now has 16 facilities producing oxygen, nitrogen and argon for pipeline and bulk delivery customers – and helping us build a more robust infrastructure for our growing bulk gas business.